ShoutOut

https://www.sheepjones.com/ Sheep Jones. Just yes. All the way down and through. They’re even richer and more intricately fascinating up close. And the finest and strangest ones aren’t even on her site. They’re wildness itself.

Diseases of Poverty and the 10/90 Gap. InternationalPolicyNetwork Access. Access. Access. The problem is access. As the World Health Organization (WHO) notes: [m]ost of the disease burden in low-income countries finds its roots in the consequences of poverty, such as poor nutrition, indoor air pollution and lack of access to proper sanitation and health education. Diseases associated with poverty account for 45% of the disease burden in the poorest countries (as compared to 6% of the disease burden in high-income countries), however, nearly all of these deaths are either treatable with existing medicines or preventable in the first place. It isn’t the fault of individuals where they were born and are trying to live or improve their lives; that is no more preordained than is the random good fortune of having been born in a high-income country. Even (somehow and hypothetically) setting aside the extent to which ‘First World-ness’ is an active creator of poverty in much of the rest of the world, it is hubris on the part of high-income countries to believe or behave otherwise.

Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zf63U1Rk0w Anselm Kiefer. The first painting of his that I saw was of sunflowers with their heads bowed down in winter. He’d studded the pigment with the black split hulls of seeds. The second painting of his that I saw was as tall as the ceiling and it sifted down the charred edges of a burnt book. The third painting of his that I saw was of the night sky and God’s own infinite eye watching down. His work is where my mind has wandered off to when I go looking for it and it’s gone.

HPP_583_The Mines - Global Health – this is where my head’s been at this semester. The Mines. Huancavelica, Peru and Potosi, Bolivia. This is half of the mercury/silver story. Or who knows what percentage – this is the part of the story that happened [or happens or is still happening, because so many of the cultural and toxicological impacts of this story are on-going] in the Andes. One fact: based on available records, almost 1/3 of the individuals conscripted to work the mercury mine in Huancavelica died as the direct result of their term of service. What is the legacy of the Colonial era in Latin America? Trauma. The legacy is trauma. These folks are working on that legacy now: http://www.ehcouncil.org

http://brandanodums.com/about/ Brandon Odums and Studio BE. Let this move your heart. As he writes: Project BE was an illegal art experience. Studio BE is a 35,000 sq ft warehouse in the bywater neighborhood of New Orleans, LA. Baptized when the Levees Broke. You are Still Here. Alchemist. And my personal favorite (for anything that that’s worth): I am my Ancestors Wildest Dreams. Just sitting here letting that one sink in. Lordy. Amor, Luz y Paz. From the root grows the revolution.

https://www.southgatefaces.com Southgate Faces. Enter here. Portraits by Heather Perry of the men and women who work at Bath Iron Works – one of the oldest shipyards in North America. I’ve worked on and around boats and in yards off and on for much of my adult life and so part of what I love about this series is that the faces are familiar. Not so much the individuals, but their faces. Just people. And that grit. And, as Heather says, that site so large it can somehow sit right there in your blindspot.

http://www.pacificstandardtime.org There will be art. LA/LA: A Celebration Beyond Borders. The political and personal effects of exile, migration, immigration and identity. This is the art of Revolution and of Ritual. This is Sara Castrejon and Graciela Iturbide and Tatiana Parker. This is activitism. And displacement. And dissonance. And challenge. And celebration. And inspiration. This what it means to push boundaries.

OK – while I get the whole pink ribbon thing, I also think that it (+ all those pink teddy bears) is infantilizing to grown women. As is the part where people tell you that maintaining a ‘positive outlook’ is vital for your recovery. It isn’t – there are even studies out there showing that people who get right pissed off and curse their way through treatment do no worse than people who meditate and look on the bright side – here’s the link to the abstract because you may not – or you may exactly - know how good it can feel to come across this study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17955501). Cancer really kind of sucks, and sometimes stompy boot energy is what you need to still feel like you’re you and not just a patient with a meds routine and a fear as vast and roiling as the surface of the sun. So, thinking about all that we made these tags. And handed them out. And up they went. And…well, let me know if you need some personal stompy boot energy – I’d be happy to send you some if it might help.

And this – because it belongs here: http://www.oncotypedx.com/ Oncotype DX. 11 years ago now. A new gene expression array designed to assess whether chemotherapy would provide additional benefit beyond radiation and 5 years of hormone therapy (for pre-menopausal woman that means Tamoxifen). 21 tumor – specific genes from a tumor sample. A retrospective study at that point – how did assay results compare with outcomes for patients already more than 5 years out for diagnosis and treatment. I’d read about it in the NYTimes and asked my doctor about it. She’d never done one. EMMC had never done one. We did one. Mine. I’d read the study and trusted it. And then trusted the results and made my decision. Coming off Tamoxifen 5 years later the world went all bright with fear again. But now 5 years after that, and I’m still here. And through that bottleneck. and a lucky little punkgirl. ❤

http://bwphotolabs.com Deirdre Kelly — I totally dig her, and also her skills. She develops my film. Thanks, Deirdre! If you need film developed (or custom printing – any format – or old images restored), she rocks.

http://www.paularaegibson.com Paula Rae Gibson. “I lost my spleen, gained nine pints of Ecuadorian blood – this caused a bit of an overflow of emotion, a tsunami actually which I poured into work and the darkroom. Everything I had ever felt all my life without even knowing ’til then, came to the surface and it almost killed me all over again.” Oh yeah. This wildstrange world. Oh yeah. Once you start there is no stopping. Oh yeah. She shoots analog.

Merritt_Vaccine Safety and the Controversy over Thimerosal EHS_565-02 – Spring 2017. Vaccines are interesting - whereas they’re voluntary in that you’re not required by Federal law to receive them, they are compulsory in that they’re required for participation in various aspects of public life. This requirement makes exposure to vaccine ingredients somewhat unavoidable, and while vaccines are overwhelmingly safe, risks do accrue to the individual. In the case of vaccines that contained Thimerosal, that those individuals were infants has created a controversy that no amount of data seems able to quell. The current U.S. President’s views on vaccine safety remind me of former President Bush’s observation that air quality has gotten so good in the U.S. that we no longer need the Clean Air Act. The list of diseases that are no longer significant public health concerns in this country is as long as it is because of vaccines, not in spite of them. Thinking about that these days.

http://time.com/4646116/film-photography-inspiration/ I ❤ shooting film. It’s about respecting the practice and the history. And the approach to discipline. LaToya Ruby Frazier writes ““[i]f I want my work to have a visual language that’s in conversation with the social documentary work of the 20th century then I need to use that medium and their tools.” That’s it. Anything else – including practicality as an end in and of itself – is the wrong metric. Go shoot.

Final Project_Epi630 Fall 2016. Nerd alert. Hypothetical epidemiology here – the problem is real – diarrheal diseases represent a significant cause of illness for children < 5 years old (y.o.) in many low- and moderate- development countries, and may be responsible for ~ 20% of deaths in this cohort. The means to address this problem – in terms of the duration and budget proposed herein, are as per class requirements; in terms of approach, however, this paper highlight the crux of the challenge with water treatment – the nuts and bolts of low cost water purification are known and are rarely the limiting factor in the process. The challenge instead is in offering solutions that mesh with how we all already behave, rather than assuming that behavior will immediately change to support an introduced solution. Behavior can’t be seen as outside the project. Behavior is the project.

http://www.mobileprintpower.com Mobile Print Power. I think I’m in love. Currently exhibiting Soñamos Sentirnos Libres: Making it Real at Maine College of Art (MECA) here in Portland. Also hosting two community workshops – February 23rd (12 – 2 pm) and February 24th (3:30 – 6:30 pm) – to explore community, the immigrant identity and the role of the artist. We all belong.

Mack and Wrase_2017. A Burgeoning Crisis? A Nationwide Assessment of the Geography of Water Affordability in the United States. They write: regarding the risk for losing access to affordable and safe drinking water, 81% of high-risk Census tracts are located in urbanized areas and the states with the greatest percentage of high-risk tracts include Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky, and Arkansas. Race/ethnicity x socio-economic access x that invisibility of infrastructure – this is the problem.

http://www.elle.com/culture/books/g29030/art-movement/ The Art of Movement. Because Ken Browar and Deborah Ory. Because the NYC Dance Project (http://www.nycdanceproject.com). Because the shape of it all is beyond beautiful. Because after years with a personal yoga practice I can at least feel the edge of it flex. Because that drishti. Because that discipline.Because No. 6. Because if it’s not difficult, what’s the point?

http://www.bakeryphoto.com The Bakery Photo Collective. Now back in Portland. Right in there with Bayou Kitchen and Artist & Craftsman. They say it best - it’s about keeping the art of photography alive. They say this too: The Bakery Photographic Collective is a non-profit organization run by a group of photographers dedicated to providing Maine-based visual artists with an accessible, affordable darkroom and digital-imaging facility. It is also a communal creative space that hosts workshops, classes, events and exhibits. Ain’t it grand? More details soon.

http://www.bu.edu/prc/ Photographic Resource Center at Boston University. 40th Anniversary year and as fantastic and helpful as they’ve always been. They’re now offering portfolio reviews again. If you join – $30 – $50/yr with all kinds of benefits – one review a year is on them (thanks to Panopticon Imaging – http://www.panopticonimaging.com). [Shout out to Rockland, MA here too, of course - hometown of His X. I don't need college, he'd said, way way back in the day. I'm good. Well, there's the shoe factory, Nana had replied. Knock yourself out.]

[and this: Flint, MI and the Emergence of Community Social Capital I wrote it this summer [2016] for a class I was taking. It’s just my opinion, of course, but it’s what’s been happening in Flint, MI., and everywhere really. From the vantage of how we think about community and inclusion and also how we don’t even see infrastructure until something goes wrong. This is crisis on many levels and we need to start paying closer attention. This is what the science and engineering can be for.]

http://khalikallah.com Khalik Allah. What this man does with one piece of earth is an astounding thing – all angles and perspective and that energy that feels both huckster and holy, if you know what I mean. I’ve been following 125th & Lexington for years now – there may be no finer pleasure than watching talented people do their thing. The camera is a healing mechanism, he says. Let me photograph it and take it away from you. Praise.

http://www.palanimohan.com Palani Mohan. Hunting with Eagles. Vanishing Giants. Hidden Faces of India. our world. our beautiful terrible world. Texture so rich it crackles off the pages. Gentleness in the touch of things – right there on the forehead, maybe – but that roughness too. That complicated relationship to reverence. And to sentimentality. And that challenge, always, for the viewer, to consider the why. And the how. And the details.

http://www.maryellenmark.com/index.html Mary Ellen Mark. (March 20, 1940 – May 25, 2015). Pick up your camera and start shooting. It doesn’t matter what. If you need help getting started, don’t be afraid to ask. If you want to build a body of work, everything else is an excuse. She got it. Magnificently. I ❤ Indian Circus. R.I.P.

http://www.womensmotoexhibit.com/ oh hell yes. this. did i say oh hell yes? i meant it. this. i might be in there somewhere. i’m not sure. i honestly don’t remember what happened.

http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL535C7T Josef Koudelka. The Master. he wrote ‘I would like to see everything. I want to be the view itself.’ Gypsies is the bar. Black Triangle is silently godawful heartbreaking. he’s still at it. sometimes he shoots with three cameras looped around his neck – one each focused up on the near-ground, mid-ground, far-ground. there are worse people to admire than this vagabond Czech.

http://www.edwardburtynsky.com/ Water. no, Quarries. no, Water. no, Quarries. he makes the pattern-loving kink in my brain go happily apeshit. mostly aerial views. large format. Stepwell #4. that one does it. well, and so does Cerro Prieto. and Rice Terraces #2. And Bay of Cadiz. you get the idea. just all kinds of beautiful work. just all kinds of mmmmmmm with that stone and flow.

http://unlessyouwill.com/ABOUT go ahead. pick one at random and dive in. i come here for a jolt or to have my brain petted or to think about what works and what doesn’t and why. they like writing about photography too. really. go ahead.

http://www.nadavkander.com/# i think the first images of his i saw were of Chernobyl [Half Life]. opaque. that’s the first word that comes to mind, like the background was washed in milk. and then the things he does with dereliction – i mean, it’s not like the Russians have cornered the market on abandoning property, but, still – the scale of it all…

http://www.jr-art.net/ ever need inspiration? check him out. i love this man’s work. because it’s not really about him, you know? it’s about swinging big and pasting it up. he just goes and makes that shit happen.

http://noorimages.com/ most fantastic. if you ever need to suddenly remember the size of the world, look here. it’ll fix you quick.